Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Policeman's Helmet was just released by Ohio-based indie polish maker Ever After Polish as part of the I've Got the Magic in Me collection earlier this month. The collection was inspired by the new American comedy-drama film I've Got the Magic in Me XXL, and is made up of a series of bawdily-named (ha!) shimmers and holos. I never saw the first Magic Mike film, but I'm curious... are male revues making a comeback? I remember going to see a Chippendales show back in the 80s. It was at least as stimulating to be part of a very rowdy and worked-up female audience as it was to watch the dancers. I'm just sayin'!This polish is so pretty! Policeman's Helmet is a medium-dark translucent bright azure jelly bearing superabundant irregularly-shaped silver flake shimmers and a sprinkling of holographic pigment particles that light up in tiny sparks of color in the sun. The relatively large reflective silvery flakes gleam in slightly varying tones of blue from within the vibrant sapphire depths as the light hits them, creating a gorgeous dimensionality that is particularly stunning in low and incandescent light, where the polish takes on a seriously stunning watery sparkle. Policeman's Helmet has a very jelly-ish consistency, paintably fluid but a little sticky, and I added polish thinner out of the gate to reduce the stickiness and get the consistency to a level of fluidity that was most accommodating to my application skills (or lack thereof). Folks with more finesse than I probably won't feel the need for this, though. Pigmentation is very good for a jelly. For shorter nails, two coats will produce satisfactory coverage. I was fearful than the heavy staining on my nails would distort the color, but after the second coat I could tell that I needn't have worried. Even so, I used three coats for this manicure to eliminate any trace of visible nail line and ensure full, rich color. Cleanup was surprisingly easy, with no pigment travel and only a trace of residual staining to skin. Policeman's Helmet dries naturally in very good time to a silky smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat enhances the depth and dimensionality of the look.

Photos show three coats of Policeman's Helmet over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Ever After Polish Policeman's Helmet

Another awesome dark blue polish! Policeman's Helmet has a frisky royal blue vibe that combines with the effects of the copious silver flakes to produce a distinctly showy polish. It's downright dazzling in the sun, but I prefer its look in indirect light where you can clearly see the flakes floating at various depths -- it's a built-in pond manicure! love,Liz

Monday, June 29, 2015

The Delorean was released by Ohio-based indie polish maker Ever After Polish as part of the Back to the Future collection in April this year. This collection is, of course, based on the 1985 American comic scifi film featuring a DeLorean DMC-12 sports coupe as the time machine. Even back in the day these were rare beasts -- less than 10,000 of them were manufactured between 1981 and 1982 by John DeLorean's DeLorean Motor Company. My cousin owned a DMC-12! Sadly, it was hit and totalled as he pulled out onto a highway one night near Orlando, FL not long after he bought it (he was completely uninjured). He garaged the wreck and kept it for several years. I gotta remember to ask him if he ended up selling it for parts or what.So anyway, when I saw this glitter polish, you know I had to get it! The Delorean is a pale cool grey creme/jelly hybrid bearing abundant small multicolored glitters, tiny silver and dark blue-purple hexes and even smaller fuchsia holographic microglitters, plus a liberal dusting of holographic pigment. It has a graceful twinkle in the sun and even sports a faint holographic flair in gold-ish pink. In the shade the pale blue-grey base is deliciously speckled, and the reflective silver hexes gleam brightly from within the layers as the light hits them. It's a quirky, unusual composition, much like the DMC-12 itself.Application was drama-free; this is a very user-friendly glitter polish. It's consistency is fluid, light and eminently paintable with an easy, self-leveling flow over the nail. The components are very well-behaved and go on smoothly without stacking, stickups or protrusions. Pigmentation is very good for a polish with a degree of translucence to it, with wearable opacity in two medium coats. I used three for the photos, but would happily wear it at two. Cleanup is straightforward. The tiny glitters like to stick around, but don't they always? The Delorean dries naturally in very good time to a shiny finish with a little bit of texture from the components, and I used a coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food to smooth out the surface before topcoating.Photos show three coats of The Delorean over treatment and basecoat with a smoothing layer of Glitter Food and a topcoat of Seche Vite. Please try and overlook the haphazard shapes I somehow ended up with on some of my nails. I didn't realize how wonky a few of them were til I got to editing the photos. The holographic effects are a bit subdued in my images -- just know that this polish has a sweet multicolored sparkle as Kirby of Mercurial Magpie captured in her review photos, here.

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

Every After Polish The Delorean

At the outset The Delorean is fairly low-key for a multicolored glitter, but the creamy translucent grey base is saturated with holographic particles that light it up with rainbow colors, producing a glowing dimensional opal-like interior light play that mirrors the larger multicolored sparkle from the holographic microglitters. The random dark blue hexes add a stippled egg-shell quality that generates visual interest and gives the polish an earthy, organic presence on the nail. Add to those effects the random glimmering of the silver hexes and you have a fluent, creatively-constructed glitter polish with a bit of self-assured modern edginess. Most agreeable!My glitter cravings aren't nearly as ferocious as they were a couple of years ago so when I do reach for a stand-alone glitter polish it's wonderful to have one like this on tap. A grownup glitter with a cool story behind it and a strong indie flavor. I like it. I like it very much!love,Liz

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Mint-al Precision was released by Canadian indie polish maker Girly Bits as a blogger collaboration polish. It was created with Tiffany of Polished to Precision in celebration of Tiffany's first blog anniversary in August 2014. You can see Tiffany's post featuring Mint-al Precision here.

This been on my Girly Bits wishlist for months now, so I was happy to see it offered on a blog sale recently and emailed right away to pick it up. It's a bright minty aquamarine, a light but intensely-hued white-based shade with a certain neon-esque quality that is carefully balanced between spring green and cyan. Very Miami Beach! It's accompanied by petite color-shifting flake shimmers in gold/pink and blue/green, which you'd think would suffer in comparison to such a bold color but they hold their own quite well, thank you. Tiny glints in pale shades of pinkish gold, blue and green gleam when the light hits them and blanket the polish in a glistening veil that twinkles like sunlight on water. Beachy and fresh, it's perfect for summer!

Application was trepidatious. Like many white-based polishes, Mint-al Precision is prone to streakiness and ghosting and doesn't want to self-level. The consistency is quite fluid but light and fluffy with flake shimmers that are a bit unruly and given to tumbling. After two thin but very streaky coats, I succumbed to my medium-thick coat inclinations for the third, which brought the opacity up to snuff but left me with lumpy-looking coverage. A generous topcoat of Seche Vite evened things out mostly, but it still has a bit of that heavy "too much polish here" look. In retrospect, I wish I'd continued with thin coats, even if it meant four of them instead of three. Next time! Cleanup left a few shimmering flakes here and there, which I was too angsty to pursue. Mint-al Precision dries naturally in good time to a shiny finish with some visual texture from the flake shimmers that smooths out with topcoat.

Photos show three coats of Mint-al Precision over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite that I wish I'd applied more meticulously. My camera did not the color accurately. It's Tiffany's blue, but it is not a Tiffany blue. It's greener than that, and more intense. Think aspirations to neon.

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision, macro shot in the bottle

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Girly Bits Mint-al Precision

Hmm. It just hasn't been a very good day for polish. I was originally going to feature a different polish from another well-known indie brand, but I was so disappointed by it once I'd finished the manicure that I removed it completely, put the bottle in my giveaway box and started over with Mint-al Precision. That doesn't happen very often. I don't enjoy writing about polish disappointments and will rarely do it, usually only if I believe that I'm the source of the problem. It just isn't any fun! I think most polish bloggers feel that way. For example, the polish that let me down had zero reviews online. Zero. And I know it sold. Speaks volumes. Mint-al Precision was tricky, but not a let-down. It's a singular color with a beautiful shimmer. Do you have the right touch for this pretty summer shade?love,Liz

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Dark blue polishes just seem to roll in here on a regular basis despite how my interior critic beleaguers me whenever I'm looking at a new one: "do you really NEED another dark blue?" Why, yes. Yes, I do. For example, today's feature, Don't Rain on My Parade released by Australian indie polish maker Glam Polish as part of the Broadway collection in November 2014. Here's another polish that I ordered from Swedish indie etailer Edgy Polish with my birthday discount last month, and look! It's dark blue!Don't Rain on My Parade has a deep Egyptian blue base that is loaded with superabundant golden glass fleck shimmers and a generous dose of holographic pigment. The glass flecks are the star of this show and totally make the polish. On the nail, they read as bright green through the blue base and give the polish a gorgeous teal-leaning Atlantic blue cast. I love it when unique hues are created by combining differently-colored components, the results are always richer, more dimensional and more interesting than shades created by pigment alone. Don't Rain on My Parade is a perfect example of this, changing up a dark blue into a tempestuous oceanic shade with superb visual texture from the flecky green-gleaming glass flecks and blanketed with prismatic sparkle in the sun from the holographic pigment.Application was lovely. This polish has a fluid, smooth consistency with an even, self-leveling flow over the nail and a beautifully balanced viscosity for painting. Despite being dense with glass flecks, it's a very user friendly polish, amenable to thin or thicker coats and easily manipulated with Glam's round flexible brush. Pigmentation is excellent, with near opacity in one coat and completely even opaque coverage in two. Cleanup is easy and straightforward with some pigment travel in the sidewalls and a little bit of recalcitrance on the part of the glass flecks. Don't Rain on My Parade dries naturally in very good time to a gorgeous sort of satiny finish. Photos show two coats of Don't Rain on My Parade over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Glam Polish Don't Rain on My Parade

Between the glass flecks in the shade and the prismatic display in the sun, there is plenty of drama in this scintillating stormy sparkler. Just gorgeous!love,Liz